Demulsification of crude oil emulsions using some new water-soluble schiff base surfactant blends

Abstract

Six new surfactant blends were prepared by mixing one Schiff base non ionic surfactant prepared by etherification of Schiff base monomer with β, β-dichlorodiethylether and PEG 400 in presence of NaOH with six water-soluble Schiff base nonionic surfactants prepared in the same way but etherified with PEG 2000. The mixing process was based on the high dehydration rates given by the PEG 400 Schiff base surfactant compared to the other PEG 2000 surfactants. The experimental results of this study indicate that the demulsification rates of these blends are higher than those of the PEG 400 surfactant. Demulsification process was carried out on an emulsion of w/o ratio 50:50 and studied at 60 °C at two different concentrations of the demulsifiers (200 and 240 ppm). The dehydration rates of the six prepared blends reached 100%. The total dehydration time varied from 50 minutes up to 2 hours.